Rik Mayall’s latest TV role as George Kinsey puts him at the head of a family living in Bucks. The six-part comedy drama is produced by Granada, and the Bucks Free Press features in the programme.
The newspaper was approached by the production company to provide a prop for the show – a Bucks Free Press newspaper: Steve Cohen, the editor, arranged for a special print run of the newspaper with a headline specially written for the drama.
All About George concerns the life and troubles of Mayall’s character and his family. Whether it’s parents’ marital disputes, his daughter’s struggle to cope with parenthood or his step-son’s sexuality, George always seems to end up in the midst of the storm. All About George is written by Mike Bullen, who created Cold Feet and Life Begins.
The Kinsey family live in Bucks, and some of the scenes for the show were filmed at locations around the country, including Gerrards Cross, where the scenes at George’s ex-wife’s house were shot.
Rik Mayall is best known for his chaotic comedic roles in The Young Ones, Bottom and the vicious Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman. This role presents something of a departure for him, but it came at the right time. He says: “As soon as I opened up the script I thought ‘Oh wow, this is great’, and it kind of hit me between the eyes because it’s so well written and it’s such a dense, complicated piece for me. It’s about a man in his mid-late 40s with a huge family and all this responsibility.
“So I thought it was really in keeping with the age structure of my career.”
In spite of the age similarity, it was still a surprise for Mayall to be considered for the role.
He says: “George is quite ‘proper’ and that’s a real first for me. The imagination in casting me for that was quite breathtaking – I’m still not sure even now if I can play a nice character, I kept reading through the script thinking ‘come on, who does he fight with’ or ‘who does he shag?”
Thanks to "hedgehog" for this!